Miriam Gohara ‘97 argued before the 11th Circuit and won on behalf of NAACP Legal Defense Fund client Herbert Williams, who was sentenced to death nearly 20 years ago in Alabama.
Read more about the case at the NAACP website here.
I noticed this give and take on recent Supreme Court cases on Slate and since two of the four participants are members of the HLS faculty, I thought you might be interested. Professor Jack Goldsmith is an expert on national security law and teaches constitutional law and other courses. Visiting Professor Walter Dellinger leads one of our Supreme Court Clinicals.
Visit this link for The Supreme Court Breakfast Table.
I hesitate to suggest that it is common for our students to argue cases before the U.S. Courts of Appeals, but after I posted my blog the other day about Lena Konanova, I got an e-mail from a student saying that I need to talk to one of his classmates, Robin Horton ‘09, who also argued in front of the one of the circuit courts.
So I e-mailed Robin to find out more. Here is what she wrote:
“The opportunity arose from my internship at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Vermont last summer. One of the Assistant U.S. Attorneys (AUSAs) let me draft the government’s brief (as appellee in a criminal case) and then insisted that I argue it too!
“We submitted the brief in late July and then followed up with a motion for me to argue as an eligible law student; the 2d Cir. local rule is that a student have completed 2 years of law school, but the court wound up bumping the argument up to 4/9 (on one week’s notice!).
“Because of its backlog, the court imposed a rule last fall that you now have to specifically request oral argument, that you won’t just get it automatically, but Judge Wesley (who was on the panel with Cabranes and Sotomayor) was kind enough to grant our motion and give each side a whopping 5 minutes. I met up with my (fantastic) supervising attorney, Greg Waples, in NYC and somehow managed to avoid having a heart attack at the podium. The court actually already issued a written opinion last week — I just pulled it from the 2d Cir. website (attached). We won!”
I just got an e-mail from Professor Martha Minow telling me that one of her students, 3L Lena Konanova, would be arguing a case before the First Circuit as part of her work at the WilmerHale Legal Services Center Employment Civil Rights clinic.
I followed up with Lena to ask how this came about:
“The opportunity came up as a purely fortuitous coincidence of circumstances—it wasn’t something that I had sought out or worked towards accomplishing or ever even envisioned. I have been working at the WilmerHale Legal Services Center, in the Employment Civil Rights Project. My clinical instructor had the appellate argument in this case coming up in May and he asked me a few weeks ago whether I would be interested in arguing the case. A few of us had worked on the briefing, but I think he picked me because of my moot court experience—I was on the winning team in the Ames competition. I also took Tom Goldstein’s and Professor Larry Tribe’s Supreme Court Litigation workshop this winter and helped prepare Tom for his Supreme Court argument—I think that fact helped the First Circuit and the client agree to this unusual situation.
“In any case, I am quite excited about it and just trying to focus on preparing for the big day.”
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Starting with the incoming Class of 2011 (starting this fall), HLS students can get their 3rd year of law school tuition paid by us in return for a 5-year commitment to public service. The official announcement is here on the home page.
Here are the details on the Student Financial Services website.
It is also being covered in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal Law Blog.
We’re very excited to be the first law school in the country to do this!
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Student organizations have been quite active during recruiting season by hosting a series of career panels involving both students and alumni. The final event before break was a public interest panel organized by APALSA with 2Ls Ming Zhu, Ting Chen, and Nick Lin.
While all three panelists attested to loving their internships, the nature and intensity of their experiences differed greatly. “Working for the Center for Appellate Litigation in New York… I got lots of responsibility,” said Lin. “Under the supervision of litigators, I was given my own cases for which I wrote briefs… I got full creative control.” For Zhu, the internship experience at U.S. Attorney’s Office varied widely depending on which attorney she was assigned to. “For me in the Criminal Appellate division, I was the only intern among three attorneys… I really liked it because the written nature of the work was unlike what I’d been studying at law school.” Ting Chen spent the summer abroad at Khmer Institute for Democracy in Cambodia and talked about the level of initiative required in a small non-profit.
All three panelists emphasized the benefit gained from large amounts of research and writing. Chen added, “On an international level… it was exciting to see what I’d learned as a 1L in Civil Procedure and Criminal Law become more tangible in practice.”
With regard to obtaining the internships, Lin indicated that he had “shotgunned” letters out to different NGOs and think tanks. “The truth is, most places get back to you when they want, so be patient.” Unlike Lin, Zhu insisted that utilizing the resume drop with the Massachusetts Law School Consortium was just as effective for her. “It’s a good, easy, and early process.” For Chen, knowing she wanted to work with an NGO in Asia, the application process was focused and quick. “I just wish that I had not been so frantic in taking the first offer that came my way.” Lin nodded and said, “If you really want a certain job, stay calm… chances are even if they don’t get back to you until March, it’s worth waiting for.”
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The official journal of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, the Harvard Law & Policy Review (HLPR) encourages lively debate on pertinent policy questions between progressive legal scholars, policymakers, and practitioners.
Staffer Julia Foresman recently caught up with President Derek Lindblom, 3L, to discuss the HLPR’s focus on finding pragmatic solutions to today’s greatest policy hurdles.
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Saw this on the Record’s online page — it’s a write-up of a session where Professor Jeannie Suk ‘02 gave advice to students on the path to a Supreme Court clerkship. Thought it might be of interest.
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Professor Bob Bordone recently returned to speak with us about the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program, of which is Director.
The Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program (HNMCP) provides HLS students with practical, real-world experience in the fields of negotiation, dispute resolution, and conflict management, with a particular focus on conflict mapping and dispute systems design. Students in the program are paired with outside organizations, institutions, or individuals who provide projects related to negotiation, dispute resolution, or conflict management.
